Spiritual Understanding
- Michael E.B. Maher
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
It is one thing to be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, but it is an entirely different thing to walk in that righteousness. Many saints love to proclaim the truth that they have been made the righteousness of God in Christ, but sadly their lifestyles do not reflect His righteousness. So why is that? The reason is because although their spirits have been born-again and made righteous in Christ, their minds are still carnal. In other words they still think and thus still behave as this world does. We have seen in a previous section that all believers are born into the kingdom of God with a carnal mindset. In other words all through our lives up until the time we are born-again, our minds have been trained to think in a certain way. The bible calls it carnal thinking, and that thinking is in direct opposition to God’s laws. And so once we are born-again, God expects us to discard our carnal thinking and begin to set our minds on the things of the spirit. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul teaches us to renew our minds, so that our lifestyles can be transformed to display God’s righteousness. This is not an overnight process however, for it took us our whole lifetime to develop a carnal mindset, and so to renew our minds to a spiritual mindset takes time and it also takes diligence. Nevertheless the process must be started the moment we come into the kingdom and the saints must be diligent to continue that process throughout their time here on the earth.
Ephesians 4:22-24 “that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, (23) and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (24) and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul teaches us the same concept of renewing our minds. In this passage Paul explains that it is through the mechanism of the renewal of our minds, that we can begin to discard the lifestyle practiced by our old wicked spirit before we were born-again, and begin to adopt the lifestyle of our new born-again spirit which has been created in true righteousness and holiness in Christ. But I want you to notice from this passage that unless we renew our minds we will not transition from the practices of the old man to the new, even though we have been born-again. The reason for that is because our old man had his ways programmed into our minds by the neural pathways that were formed in our brains over the course of our lifetime in the flesh. And so we see that before we can begin to walk in true righteousness and holiness, those old neural pathways have to first be erased and new ones formed according to the desires of our new man which has been created in the image of Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 3:15-16 “But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. (16) Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”
So how do we go about renewing our minds? Our minds have to be renewed to think in line with God’s word, and so the first step to having our minds renewed is to have spiritual understanding of His word. Although we do not receive new minds when we are born-again, there is nevertheless something that does change with regards to our understanding. For once we are born-again; the scriptures start to make sense to us for the very first time. The reason for that is because, as the above quoted passage of scripture declares, the veil that lies on the heart of all unbelievers is taken out of the way and Jesus begins to open our understanding to His word. And so whereas before we came to Christ the bible remained a closed book to us and no matter how many times we may have read it we could not understand it because our thinking was carnal and not spiritual. But nevertheless when we turned to the Lord He removed the veil and we were able to start understanding the bible for the first time. And so we see a principle revealed, which is that unless Christ removes the veil the bible remains a closed book and our minds cannot be renewed.
Luke 24:45 “And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit confirms the truth to us that it is the Lord who opens our understanding to His word. The context of this passage is that this was the first night that the Lord Jesus had appeared to the disciples after He was raised from the dead. On that occasion the Lord began to teach the disciples a number of things that they could not understand while He was still with them in the flesh. But now that Jesus had been raised from the dead and the saints had seen Him and believed, they were at that point born-again and so Jesus could open their understanding to the scriptures and He could now teach them spiritual truths that they could not grasp before. And so we see the principle reinforced, which is that unless the Lord Jesus opens our understanding to His word our minds cannot be renewed.
Ephesians 1:15-18 “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, (16) do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: (17) that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, (18) the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
We have seen thus far that in order to renew our minds we first need understanding of God’s word, and that it is only the Lord who can give us that understanding. And so we have seen that when we come into the kingdom that the Lord takes the veil away from our hearts and opens our understanding to the scriptures for the first time. Nevertheless there is a further truth regarding this concept that we need to understand, which is that the Lord does not give us full understanding of all of His word the moment we are born-again, but rather the revelation that He gives to us is progressive. And so it is for this reason that the scriptures teach us that prayer is required in order for the saints to grow in spiritual understanding. In other words we need to continually ask God to give us more understanding of His word. The apostle Paul understood this truth, which is why as quoted in the above passage of scripture, he prayed for the church at Ephesus that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened. And so even though that church had been taught God’s word Paul recognised that he needed to pray for them to receive further revelation of God’s word so that their minds could be further renewed. And so we see that as believers we need to be constantly praying the same prayer that the Holy Spirit taught Paul to pray, for as we do God will begin to answer that prayer and we will begin to see truths in His word that we have never seen before as God takes us into progressive understanding of His word.
1 Corinthians 3:1-2 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. (2) I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul speaks of the milk and the solid food of God’s word. Paul uses these analogies to explain the concept of the saints initially having limited understanding of God’s word and only progressing to a deeper understanding of His word as they grow in the Lord. And so in this passage Paul confirms the truth to us that the saints receive progressive revelation of God’s word, and the reason he gives for that is because young Christians are unable to understand certain truths in God’s word because their mindsets, still being carnal, would not be able to comprehend it. And so initially believers can only partake of the milk of God’s word, but as they spend time in God’s word and as they begin to understand parts of His word He then begins to reveal more to them thus enabling them to start partaking of the solid food of God’s word.
Hebrews 8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Under the New Covenant God writes His laws in our spirits and in our minds. This truth is confirmed to us by the Holy Spirit in the above quoted passage of scripture. This is one of the major differences between the saints under the New Covenant and the Old, for God never wrote His laws on the hearts and minds of the Old Covenant saints. God writes all of His laws in our spirits the moment we are born-again (see my series “The Spirit of Man” for more detail). However, God only writes His laws in our minds as and when He opens our understanding to His word. Nevertheless when God writes His laws in our hearts and minds that word becomes a part of us for all eternity.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments